Charity begins in the squad car
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by Robert Billyard
The other night the phone rang just as we were sitting down to dinner. I answered. It was the police. They were phoning to solicit funds for a police charity drive. After he delivered his carefully scripted solicitation, I told him that until such time as police turned in their tasers I would not be supporting any police charities.
There was silence on the other end of the line. It seems I wasn’t following the script. So I wished him a good evening and hung up.
I am a good old prairie boy. I grew up where the NWMP, later the RCMP made themselves famous. I visited the RCMP Museum in Regina and saw all the slightly used hangmen’s nooses’, the tarnished brass knuckles, and the clunky old guns. I visited places like Battleford, Batoche, and saw the Musical Ride.
To be Canadian is to be proud of these men in their splendid red uniforms. This pride has persisted throughout my adult years even though they delivered the occasional speeding ticket from time to time.
In recent times there have been rumblings of corruption within the force; then we hear stories of Robocops blissed out on taser use.
Now, when I look at a police officer, RCMP or otherwise, I wonder whether I am seeing someone dedicated to their career, their family, a pillar of the community or; some trigger happy cowboy- mad at his wife-mad at the world- who just can’t wait for the slightest provocation that would justify hauling out his taser. I also look at them with some sympathy as obviously some very good and dedicated cops are having their reputations smeared by bad apples.
I also wonder if these same police see their status in the community and the status of their profession diminished by the indiscriminate use of the taser. Clearly, an important part of law enforcement is to only use force as necessary, and also to be prepared to mediate and use conflict resolution techniques.
When tasers come to be used with the same reckless abandon as TV remote controls, it is a sad day for the art of policing.
There is a leadership maxim: Lose your temper, and you loose your authority. This applies to all fields of leadership but is very pertinent to police officers. They must be skilled and calm to resolve a crisis peaceably. The premature or needless use of the taser is tantamount to saying the skills are absent and that authority is vested in administering torture.
Taser’s were introduced so that police would have an alternative to using lethal force, when in fact they are proving to be a lethal weapon, and too often used when force isn’t even necessary.
It doesn’t seem to matter both the UN and Amnesty International consider the use of tasers a form of torture, and one comes to wonder if our apparent societal tolerance for such a hideous weapon doesn’t come about as an offshoot of the fatuous war on terror. The world has been divided into good and evil and it is quite all right to go about zapping bad guys as if this is some sort of reality video game. The problem is, it is not the bad guys being zapped and dying from indiscriminate taser use, it’s the mentally ill, the down and out, and the old guy down the street delivering papers and living in Kelowna BC.
A recent Globe and Mail poll recorded that 90% of those surveyed (and this writer was one) felt that deinstitutionalizing the mentally ill was a mistake. Maybe now, we can get back to re-institutionalizing them-in protective custody- as they are prime targets of choice for indiscriminate taser use.
It was recently announced the Toronto police force has placed an order for 8.6 million dollars worth of tasers. This comes at an odd time as the taser has a growing notoriety and as a result of the taser death of Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver Airport there are several inquiries under way.
One can draw several possible conclusions from this order being placed now: One, is the police are thumbing their nose at the inquiries and public opinion and insisting on having their toys now before the reports come in. A second might be, they have every confidence feckless politicians will acquiesce to their demands to have tasers at their disposal; a third might be that it was an outright contemptuous act of arrogance.
Once these inquiries are completed will they recommend real change or another coat of whitewash? Will the public demand change and possibly an out right ban? Will politicians legislate the public will and insist on civilian oversight or submit to police intransigence?
Taser International Inc., the manufactuer, has to be congratulated for their marketing savvy, at least momentarily, they have everybody fooled that there is no connection between taser use and a growing number of deaths. They have proven once and for all you really can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear and everybody is buying.
With the recent death of American writer Kurt Vonnegut the world lost a great satirist. Were he writing today he would have great fun with the taser issue, mocking our utter foolishness and self –imposed tyrannies. He left us a great legacy. To see where taser use can lead, read his short story: Harrison Bergeron.
Vonnegut’s, Diana Moon Clampers walks among us and she’s a real *****, and just remember; charity begins in the squad car.
Robert Billyard © 2008
@ February 21, 2008